The GREAT SUPERANNUATION RIPOFF. Some
time past
the Australian Taxation Office raised revenue by taxing contributions
to
PAYE taxpayer superannuation schemes, (excepting the parliamentary
scheme)
resulting in prepayment of income tax by retirees. In light of recent
taxation
rebates and reductions by lugubrious John Howard, my questions are:

Can this prepaid tax be used to fund the health
care rebate
due to retirees?

When the GST is introduced and income taxes are
reduced,
will those retirees who have prepaid tax be entitled to an annual
refund
of their prepaid taxes?

Since the failure of US prohibition in the 1920's
it seems
axiomatic that legislated prohibition does not result in
eradication
of the offending goods, rather it serves to increase their supply
and
is a sure recipe for the forced incubation of a new criminal provider
class.
Lugubrious John's vigorous enforcement of drug prohibition seems to
have
accelerated those established trends. I fail to see how "zero
tolerance"
as promoted by President Clinton will do anything except accelerate
growth
in use as happened in the USA. Mr. Kennett and Federal
health
minister Wooldridge might have got it right with their controlled
distribution,
a method that seems to have been successful in Switzerland.

It is an Australian axiom. Every job has it's
perks.
My garbo expects alcohol every Xmas. So most Australians are
probably
bemused by IOC concerns about the travel rorting of representative Coles.
Cabinet minister McGauran merely refunds any federal travel money he
inadvertently
overspent. So why can't Coles do the same? (He needs a good
spin doctor to tell him to say that he thought that the people in Salt
Lake City were giving him free accommodation and free travel because
they
thought he was such a great guy.)

The Pinochet Principle discovered by the English
Law Lords
(expanding jurisdictions & innovative applications) will hopefully
eventually apply to the perpetrators of the Queensland shreddergate.
An eminent QC has explained that the whole Queensland cabinet could be
vulnerable to charges under the crimes act if they ordered the
destruction
of documents that they knew might be subpoenaed. Would be
perpetrators
of fraud inside government would do well to remember that information
trails
continue to exist, and that expanding data processing capabilities will
allow unimagined future insights into what seem now to be adequate
cover-ups.
Shredding the evidence might well prove to be even more dangerous than
leaving it be ....

developing...

KURDISH SPIN

Clinton is desperate to survive Monicagate.
If it was given the right spin in the home market, the establishment of
a strong position against the already vilified Saddam might well be the
winning strategy. (Of course Saddam was never particularly
culpable.
After all, he did obtain US permission before he invaded KUWAIT.
Just like Suharto cleared it with Australia before invading Timor)

There are 20 million KURDS, spread through Turkey,
Iraq &
Iran. None of these countries wants to surrender strategically
valuable
land in this oil rich region for a Kurdish nation.

Turkey is a vital & essential partner of the
USA against
IRAQ.

The CIA has admitted involvement in the capture of
the KURDISH
separatist leader Ocalan.

Harder to believe is the disclaimer of
MOSSAD. Imagine
the pressure that the US could apply to Israel. Perhaps the
Israeli
leadership was responsible?

The pressure can be measured by the involvement of
the Greeks,
traditional enemies of Turkey.

And why must Ocalan be sacrificed? Why must US
goodwill
assets be spent so profligately? Because it is more
important
that Zippergate Bill have a historically successful presidency than
that
20 million Kurds get a particularly seedy dictator type to bear the
banner
of their liberty.